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Here is the latest news from Buffalo Field Campaign on the situation just west of the Park where the bison remain in dire threat, but were not captured for slaughter yesterday as DOL originally planned.

We’d like to start by saying *THANK YOU* to everyone who has been putting in calls, emails, and faxes to Yellowstone, Governor Schweitzer, and MT Acting State Vet Jeanne Rankin. You are making a huge difference for the buffalo! Your voice forced a stay of execution. The buffalo will not die today. Given the impact you’ve made and what still looms ahead, it is clear that *WE MUST KEEP THE PRESSURE ON.* Please don’t let up for one minute in contacting these decision-makers (listed below), and please continue to spread the word and share the buffalo’s story.

Yesterday the agencies met and decided that they would face a public relations nightmare if they went forward with plans to kill buffalo moms and babies. They felt the heat before they went through with their plans and the death sentence has been postponed. We are hugely grateful that buffalo will not be killed in the next few days, but they are far from being left alone. The agencies have decided, in lieu of immediate capture and slaughter, that they will resume hazing – with horses and helicopter – through the weekend. Border patrols will guard Yellowstone’s boundary to chase away any approaching buffalo. Come Monday, any buffalo – newborn calves included – found in Montana will be sent to slaughter. Slaughter or hazing? While the buffalo should not die, they shouldn’t be forced off of their native ground either. The hazing has begun and hundreds of buffalo calves, moms, and other family members are being hounded by helicopter and horsemen. Read the rest of this entry »

Dirk Kempthorne has gotten the President to nominate Jim Caswell to replace Kathleen Clarke as the head (the director) of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Caswell was the head of Kempthone’s Office of Endangered Species when Kempthorne’s was Idaho’s governor and has remained in that position since.

During Caswell’s time in the office, most conservation groups saw his role as making sure no Idaho species got put on the endangered species list. Prior to Caswell’s time in Idaho Office of Species Conservation he was the supervisor of the Clearwater National Forest, and earlier the Targhee National Forest.

Back in his Targhee days, I recall we battled with him over the excessive clearcutting on that forest, which is located west and south west of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

The biggest issue before the BLM right now in terms of money and maybe habitat, is oil and gas with which Caswell has no experience (fortunately, for Idaho’s mountains and lands, no oil or commercial quantities of gas have been discovered in Idaho).

My personal experience with Caswell was that he is was easy to talk with.

The outcry against Montana DOL’s slaughter plans probably had something to do with this bit of good news.

What DOL should really do is delay the slaughter permanently because there are are no cattle west of the Park near West Yellowstone. The Horse Butte (former) grazing allotment was bought out by a conservation group, and the Forest Service formally closed the allotment (a rare thing). The purpose was to settle this conflict, yet DOL didn’t buy into the bargain, and so it goes on and on.

Finally a little thought about coyotes and livestock. . . killing coyotes to protect livestock can have just opposite effect. Here Brodie Farquhar writes another on the Casper Star Tribunes explosion of articles on predator control.

A search of this blog will bring many more stories how a not very good demonstration project has become much worse as it was made permanent without even a real vote in Congress. As Williams writes, “a rope to hang ourselves.”

PLEASE CONTACT these three decision-makers TODAY demanding that they cease plans to capture and slaughter the buffalo who are trying to live wild and free! Contact each by phone, fax, and email and let’s not let them forget that the world is watching!
* MONTANA GOVERNOR BRIAN SCHWEITZER: Demand that Schweitzer keep his campaign promise to provide tolerance for bison in Montana.
(406) 444-3111 (phone)
(406) 444-5529 (fax)
governor@mt.gov (email)

* MONTANA ACTING STATE VET JEANNE RANKIN: Urge her to withdraw her decision to slaughter Yellowstone bison calves and family groups. Remind her you are boycotting beef and your friends are joining you!
(406) 444-1895 (phone)

(800) 523-3162 (phone)
(406) 444-1929 (fax)

jrankin@mt.gov (email)

* YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS: Ask her if it’s really worth the lives of 300 wild buffalo, including newborn calves, to have Montana ship them to slaughter rather than deeper into the Park.

(307) 344-2002 (phone)
(307) 344-2005 (fax)

suzanne_lewis@nps.gov OR yell_superintendent@nps.gov (email)

It’s crucial that we flood these offices today! Capture could begin as soon as Thursday, with transport to slaughter beginning Friday. Read BFC’s press release from Tuesday at:

Here is the msm’s story on the meeting and the slaughter to come. All the standard lies are repeated.

It is infuriating to sit here in Idaho and hear them talk in Montana about the disaster is was that Idah0 lost its brucellosis-free status, when the Idaho media don’t run any stories of woe about it — they run no stories at all.